Security News > 2022 > September > Tax fraud ring leader jailed for selling children’s stolen identities
The owner of a fraudulent tax preparation business, Ariel Jimenez, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling the stolen identities of thousands of children on welfare and helping "Customers" to falsely claim tax credits, causing tens of millions of dollars in tax loss.
His "Customers" used the stolen identity info to add the children fraudulently as dependents on their tax returns so they would get a refund when they filed their taxes.
The defendant more than $1 million in some years by selling more than a thousand children's stolen identities he referred to as "Pollitos," meaning "Little chickens."
"JIMENEZ's use of stolen identities harmed the actual caretakers of the children who were fraudulently claimed as dependents," DOJ said in a press release on Monday.
"Ariel Jimenez's tax and identity theft crimes cruelly forced his victims to endure bureaucratic snafus and agonizing delays for their much-needed tax refunds," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in February.
"Today's sentence holds Jimenez accountable for brazenly selling the identities of children to his customers for his own profit," Williams added today.